I'd probably go with

-C9 +DarkZero or Oxygen, C9 have been coasting on budget rosters for the better part of 3 years and they just don't seem interested in seriously competing in Valorant despite there being enough talent for them to assemble legitimately good rosters

-Furia +paiN or w7m, same thing as C9 really

-NRG +G2, the management seems extraordinarily hands off and seem to just let the players control the team completely, which lead to the 2023 roster underdelivering, the shit show that was the 2024 roster and the apparent benching of Verno and Bonkar

-LEV +9z. LEV have just abandoned being a LATAM team entirely and aren't even finding enough success to justify it. Plus they've completely fucked over 2 players now.

-BBL +Eternal Fire. BBL have actually put together a pretty decent roster this year but apparently they have some kinda questionable finances so it'd probably be better to have an org like EF (assuming no one would lose their job over it)

-GX +Team Spirit (assuming they'd field a Valorant team). I guarantee there isn't a single GX fan that isn't Spanish, and of those fans I think maybe 3 actually have GX as their favourite Spanish team. Plus they consistently field absolutely mid rosters

-KOI +MOUZ. KOI have just been fielding dogshit bottom of the barrel teams for 3 years now, and don't deserve the franchising slot over an org like MOUZ, who have been consistently fielding good T2 rosters and are a massive org in CS.

-ZETA +Fennel or SCARZ. ZETA have quite literally been riding off nothing but their Reykjavik run for years

Idk too much about the orgs specifically in China

"Guys actually you shouldn't use the discussion forums to give opinions, you're not salaried professionals or org managers"

Ok but they kept one of the same players from last year, they're not the same team as the bottom feeder

True but at the same time I feel like international consistency should be a more valued metric than ability to perform with a bad team (tho I honestly don't think LEV or MIBR can really be considered bad teams, just inconsistent)

Bren, Pansy and Achilios but Sideshow is tied with all of them tbh

I am TH strongest soldier but cmon bro Shanghai Wo0t is a REACH

Idk if EDG have a year at least comparable to their Champs form, which I think they've at the bare minimum shown is a level they can hit again at times, and MIBR don't improve significantly, then I think Zmjkk's international showings would probably be on par with aspas'

And if he wins an event and MIBR don't then I think he HAS to be the front runner for the title

People who put zekken in GOAT contention but say putting Zmjjkk in there is recency bias are objectively fucking brain dead and literally only say that cuz zekken is NA

Zmjjkk's been to more international events and has been considered a top 10 player itw for longer

Hell zekken and Zmjjkk literally peaked in the same year, and Zmjjkk's peak was arguably higher than zekken's at a higher stakes event

And honestly if Zmjjkk keeps up his performance this year and EDG continue to make deep runs I think he makes a better case than aspas, and if he wins another event this year then I think it's undisputable

KJ/Cypher, I genuinely feast on lurks and playing off setups

Oh Order is a peak song from that game as well

Say retard you retard

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7N2OGhRlMf2Hi3eDKvJlW9IUV366oT3

This is PEAK game OST, best tracks are Tenebre Rosso Sangue, Duel, The Death of God's Will and Altars of Apostasy

Azzelestia and dort, they just spout retarded nonsense with zero consistency or thought. It's never been more over for the vlr baiting scene

I think EF deserves a shout for EMEA as well

No but I find the absurd amounts of moral policing puritanical high horse bullshit people spout about smoking really cringe

Like anyone who has genuinely typed out "I breathe air 🗿" in a TikTok comment section is a bigger loser than the people who smoke

Chainsaw Man

(tho I'd probably recommend u read the manga first)

This mf is trynna enforce vlr segregation 💀

They literally benched him cuz he wouldn't agree to a salary cut and then tried to contract jail him bruh

Goated China farmer

I cycle between blue Prelude, black Kuronami, gold Forsaken and blue/green Primordium

I'm still to this day baffled by NAVI's decision to drop him after Stage 1 last year only for the team to immediately crash and burn

Can't wait for FNC to shit all over NAVI next time they face each other

TL vs KOI 🔥🔥🔥

2023 EG's Fracture got nothing on 2025 Liquid

Complete mental breakdown and subsequent purge of all internet access

Yh cuz they're twin brothers lmao

Where did they even come from? Cuz that HAS to be bait right? Cuz Verno really doesn't seem like the type of guy to be a rager even if his attitude doesn't seem great from the outside

Surely someone just got one guy'd and then started saying that cuz there's no way

Yeah but I was only looking at the EG series because I thought Furia went 0-2 I forgot the YFP roster beat 2G and then the main roster played LEV

I forgot to count the LEV series I forgot they won against 2G 💀

I mean he did only play one series tbf

Here's the number of first engagements each player on each team took for Americas Kickoff

NRG

mada - 76 (37 kills and 39 deaths)
s0m - 33 (19 kills and 14 deaths)
FNS - 27 (9 kills and 18 deaths)
Ethan - 23 (8 kills and 15 deaths)
Verno - 23 (11 kills and 14 deaths)

100T

Asuna - 60 (33 kills and 27 deaths)
Cryo - 38 (23 kills and 15 deaths)
zander - 35 (18 kills and 17 deaths)
Boostio - 21 (9 kills and 12 deaths)
eeiu - 18 (10 kills and 8 deaths)

Furia

havoc - 27 (14 kills and 13 deaths)
heat - 17 (7 kills and 10 deaths)
mwzera - 14 (7 kills and 7 deaths)
raafa - 12 (2 kills and 10 deaths)
Khalil - 10 (7 kills and 3 deaths)

EG

icy - 43 (18 kills and 25 deaths)
yay - 33 (20 kills and 13 deaths)
supamen - 21 (11 kills and 10 deaths)
Derrek - 17 (5 kills and 12 deaths)
NaturE - 14 (5 kills and 9 deaths)

2G

silentzz - 26 (15 kills and 11 deaths)
lz - 20 (8 kills and 12 deaths)
gobera - 11 (7 kills and 4 deaths)
Zap - 9 (2 kills and 7 deaths)
pryze - 3 (2 kills and 1 deaths)

C9

OXY - 58 (25 kills and 33 deaths)
mitch - 30 (12 kills and 18 deaths)
neT - 30 (13 kills and 15 deaths)
Xeppaa - 19 (11 kills and 8 deaths)
v1c - 17 (10 kills and 7 deaths)

LOUD

dgzin - 66 (42 kills and 24 deaths)
cauanzin - 53 (26 kills and 27 deaths)
tuyz - 34 (17 kills and 17 deaths)
pANcada - 28 (17 kills and 11 deaths)
v1nny - 23 (7 kills and 16 deaths)

LEV

nataNk - 40 (19 kills and 21 deaths)
Demon1 - 35 (12 kills and 23 deaths)
kiNgg - 27 (14 kills and 13 deaths)
tex - 25 (9 kills and 16 deaths)
C0M - 20 (9 kills and 11 deaths)

KRU

keznit - 82 (43 kills and 39 deaths)
Mazino - 53 (22 kills and 31 deaths)
adverso - 43 (19 kills and 24 deaths)
Melser - 40 (24 kills and 16 deaths)
Shyy - 28 (19 kills and 9 deaths)

MIBR

artzin - 120 (49 kills and 71 deaths)
aspas - 118 (73 kills and 45 deaths)
cortezia - 61 (31 kills and 30 deaths)
xenom - 45 (21 kills and 24 deaths)
nzr - 25 (14 kills and 11 deaths)

SEN

zekken - 139 (71 kills and 68 deaths)
Zellsis - 69 (29 kills and 40 deaths)
bang - 65 (31 kills and 34 deaths)
N4RRATE - 55 (27 kills and 28 deaths)
johnqt - 42 (24 kills and 18 deaths)

G2

jawgemo - 76 (43 kills and 33 deaths)
leaf - 53 (34 kills and 19 deaths)
trent - 37 (21 kills and 16 deaths)
valyn - 30 (14 kills and 16 deaths)
JonahP - 25 (12 kills and 13 deaths)

False

pANcada denied joining Furia because he felt too sick to compete apparently, gets an offer from Loud and immediately feels fine again

Is Bonkar about to do the same with Leo?

AmeN by Bring Me the Horizon

I ain't watching, is it the "LET'S GO SENTINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS" woman who screeches as loud as possible whenever zekken gets an eco frag again?

It was until it wasn't

We win pistol, we don't get ecoed, win bonus, win against the eco, we're 7-9, just need 2 rifle rounds against T1's Bind defence (freest thing ever), they take that momentum all the way to win 13-9, all good

Generation Gamer to Bangkok let's fucking go

The fact this bait was somewhat believable at first speaks volumes icl

Americans when they try to read (they can not)

I'VE PLAYED THESE GAMES BEFORE

This shit is generational

Wtf is going on? I thought SEN would 3-0 fairly easily

I will genuinely never watch this shit fucking rigged ass matchfixed fucking esport ever again. I'll become a CS gambler frog and go in Ohne's chat every day to spam L-orant like a lobotomised parrot

unless it's illegal

I already poisoned a small child and burned someone's house down because of Liquid, you're weak

He's trying to do the MiniBoo/Victor style of human drone duelist but he ain't built for that shit

POTENTIAL MAN IS IN THE SERVER !!!1!111!!!!1!!!!

Ite bro, Gen.G gotta lock in

Only if they emergency sub in Lakia

Honestly? I reckon it's 50/50 on who takes it

During FNC's recent run at Kickoff it's pretty safe to say they looked pretty out of their depth compared to previous years. They really struggled making adaptations to enemy gameplans and their micro coordination seemed off, especially in the BBL game. Then you look at VIT, who despite being a fairly new team already seem pretty much in sync and have a really good idea of what their team mates are going to be doing and how to play off that. Which got me wondering, how much mid rounding did Derke used to contribute on FNC?

Along with that from the TH vs FNC game in Stage 1 finals last year we heard that Leo had been making calls for them as well

Now that both of them are gone it seems like FNC's midrounding took a massive hit

Boaster set play merchant?

Honestly a good showing from KRU this kickoff, they might honestly be in the running to make Toronto come the regular season